Staten Island Advance file photo by Bill LyonsJoey Mundweiler nailed 11 3-pointers as Wagner College clinched a Northeast Conference Tournament berth with a 91-60 win at Monmouth. Mundweiler's 11 triples are the most in a game in NCAA DIvision I this season.

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. -- For Wagner College's Joey Mundweiler, it was simple enough.

In a win-or-be-gone moment, he wanted to continue playing.

With that as motivation, the senior drained a record-shattering 11 3-pointers on the way to a career-high 39 points in a 91-60 Wagner win at Monmouth that vaulted coach Mike Deane's team into the Northeast Conference playoffs on the final day of the regular season.

"Joey came here with a sense of purpose," Deane said after the Seahawks' No. 19 all-time scorer broke both the school (seven) and conference (10) record for single-game long-distance shooting. "Our guys are veterans who knew what was at stake today, and they did what they wanted to do. They extended their season."

With their sixth in seven games, the streaking Seahawks improved to 16-13 and 8-10 in the conference and earned the No. 7 seed (of eight) in the NEC tournament.

Wagner will travel to No. 2-seed Mount St. Mary's on Thursday for a quarterfinal game.

Mundweiler's 11 3-pointers also claimed the NCAA Division I men's single-game mark for the current season.

Notre Dame (and Moore Catholic's) Kyle McAlarney made 10 against North Carolina in November. Kentucky's Jodie Meeks equaled that last month in a win over Tennessee.

Freshman Chris Martin came off the bench to score 14 points (including four 3-pointers) as Monmouth, also playing for its tournament life, fell to 8-23 and 6-12 and was eliminated.

And Jamal Smith added 10 points as Wagner jumped out to a 41-32 halftime lead in posting its widest margin of victory this season.

But it was Mundweiler who set the tone. The school's No. 1 career 3-point shooter came out firing.

He knocked down three 3-pointers in the first four-plus minutes against Monmouth's match-up zone defense as the Seahawks jumped out to a 15-10 lead they never relinquished.

The Olathe, Kansas, product made six treys by halftime and had 20 points.

He was 6 of 10 from three in the first half, 5 for 8 in the second.

"My eyes light up when teams play us zone," said Mundweiler, who has made 305 career treys, most of any active NEC player and second all-time in the conference behind former Central Connecticut star Tristan Blackwood (328). "We came in with a game plan that was going to get us good looks, and my teammates executed it perfectly."

Mundweiler made long-range shots from the left corner. He made them from the top of the key. He shot the ball from just beyond the arc, with hands in his face. And from beyond NBA range, with no defender in reach.

And at the end, when the game was all but over and Wagner had been assured a tournament playoff spot and at least one more game, the right-handed grad student sailed in his final two 3-pointers back-to-back on the right side of the floor right in front a Seahawk bench that was on its feet and cheering.

"When Joey's in a zone like that you can see it in his eyes," said Wagner point guard Justin Drummond, who picked up 10 assists, thanks in large measure to Mundweiler's streak shooting. "We just try to get him any type of screen we can, and then get him the ball."

The last Wagner player to score 39 was Dean Borges. The future Puerto Rico Olympian did it in a road win over Manhattan on Dec. 9, 1987.

"I've been around college basketball for 22 years now," 12th-year Monmouth coach Dave Calloway said. "And sometimes, at the highest levels, you'll see a guy go off like that. But I can count on one hand the number of times I've witnessed anyone play like that at our level."

Two decades ago, Calloway had his own version of Mundweiler's afternoon, dropping nine 3-pointers for Monmouth in an upset of Pepperdine.

"But it wasn't like this," he said of the Wagner star's performance.

"No matter what we did, he had the focus to find nothing but net."

NOTES: Mundweiler is 20 of 38 from three (53 percent) over the last three Wagner games (all wins) ... Monmouth was held to 32 percent shooting from the floor ... Former Monsignor Farrell HS stars James Hett (Monmouth) and Doug Elwell (Wagner) went head-to-head for several minutes.